# Cigar room ventilation



## Stevesf47

First off this is my first post. Nice to meet everyone and thanks for any info in advance. Ive been smoking cigars for a few years now as a social hobby but the wife and i just moved and want to convert a room to be a cigar room. The room is 14x8x8 and it is actually a sunroom with lots of windows on 2.5 sides of the room. It was an add on to the house so there is no vents in the room. It is heated by baseboard which currently isnt functional so will replace that or go with electric fireplace to heat the room. I live in pa so we get all four seasons. This room will be mainly used during cold weather times.

My question is what type of exhaust system should i put in? Theres a door that leads to the house/living room but with kids i want to do my best to prevent any smoke from entering house.

Im not afraid to spend a few bucks. Just want to do it right. Im not the most handy guy but i have good friends that will help that know what their doing if i tell them what i want. Any suggestions?


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## Thoroughbred

Hello Steve. Good to have you here. There are at least a few of us doing the same type of thing as you're considering. Basically, you'll want some type of exhaust fan to get the smoke out of your house. You have a choice between Inline Fans, Squirrel-Cage Fans, and others I'm sure. In addition to that, it is recommended that you have some way of replacing the lost air in your room. One solution is to bring in fresh from an exterior vent. However, this also requires an inline heater during the winter. It is possible to pull air from the rest of your house, but you will compromise the separation between the cigar room and your home, in addition to pulling warm or cold air from your home HVAC system (which is not necessarily a bad thing). In addition to air exhaust and make-up, you can install other items like a Rabbit air purifier or an ozone generator to further clean the air and smell. I'm currently building my own cigar room, and I've installed an inline exhaust fan and make-up air ductwork where I can install a heater later in the process.

Here are some resources to get you started:

Ryan Dyer's Cigar Room: His web site is the most complete description for how to ventilate a cigar room.
Exhaust Fans: This Puff post has some good material to consider for fans.
Cigar Room Plans & Progress: This is a recent post on my current cigar-room project.

The search function will uncover many other posts on this subject. Please let us know if we can provide any other helpful information, and don't hesitate to post photos of your project as you go through it!


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## Marcm15

I have the same type of room. I heat mine with a wood stove in the cold weather. For ventilation, I simply place a box fan in one of the windows if I am smoking by myself. If I have friends over I use multiple fans. The room never gets clouded from the smoke. The only downside is some residual odor which is usually remedied by a few open windows, Fabreeze and sometimes candles.


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## FireRunner

Thoroughbred said:


> Hello Steve. Good to have you here. There are at least a few of us doing the same type of thing as you're considering. Basically, you'll want some type of exhaust fan to get the smoke out of your house. You have a choice between Inline Fans, Squirrel-Cage Fans, and others I'm sure. In addition to that, it is recommended that you have some way of replacing the lost air in your room. One solution is to bring in fresh from an exterior vent. However, this also requires an inline heater during the winter. It is possible to pull air from the rest of your house, but you will compromise the separation between the cigar room and your home, in addition to pulling warm or cold air from your home HVAC system (which is not necessarily a bad thing). In addition to air exhaust and make-up, you can install other items like a Rabbit air purifier or an ozone generator to further clean the air and smell. I'm currently building my own cigar room, and I've installed an inline exhaust fan and make-up air ductwork where I can install a heater later in the process.
> 
> Here are some resources to get you started:
> 
> Ryan Dyer's Cigar Room: His web site is the most complete description for how to ventilate a cigar room.
> Exhaust Fans: This Puff post has some good material to consider for fans.
> Cigar Room Plans & Progress: This is a recent post on my current cigar-room project.
> 
> The search function will uncover many other posts on this subject. Please let us know if we can provide any other helpful information, and don't hesitate to post photos of your project as you go through it!


Excellent post. Particularly about the make up air, something most people are not aware of.


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## nfusion770

Thoroughbred covered it very well. Exhaust, makeup air (heated if it's cold outside), isolation from house HVAC (complete isolation, vent dampers or both), air purifier (can't really handle smoke but does wonders for lingering smell), non absorbent fixtures (leather, if you care), plug in air freshener and a good cleaning once a week. If done right you won't even know you smoke in the room.


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## Stevesf47

Awesome thanks all for the info. Ill check out those sites here soon. they are blocked at work  This is a project i hope to start when weather gets a little nicer next month. One other question though. How powerful do you think the fan should be? I was thinking 400 cfm does this sound about right for 2-4 smokers? Mostly just two but at times we have our friends over.


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## Thoroughbred

Stevesf47 said:


> How powerful do you think the fan should be? I was thinking 400 cfm...


This is a good question, and I haven't found a definitive answer to it. Personally, I estimated how much CFM I should have based on the numbers given by Ryan Dyer and others. I came to the conclusion that I wanted a CFM no less than half the total cubic footage of the room, which I still expect to be a bit more than is really necessary for three or four smokers. Theoretically, this will clear the room air once every two minutes (though angles in ductwork reduce that number). I haven't tested my estimate so I can't verify that my numbers are correct, but I went with a 720 CFM fan for a room with about 1200 cubic feet. This will be connected to variable-speed switch so I can lower the output amount when there are only one or two people in the room.

This is purely my opinion, but I would go no less than 400 CFM, and I would be very tempted to go higher than that. Having said that, I'm guessing 400 CFM would work just fine the majority of the time--_if you don't have many angles in the exhaust ductwork_. I just haven't found particularly solid data to back up that assumption.


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## CarnivorousPelican

What matters is how many times a minute the air in the room is exchanged... Having a passive intake somewhere (so no static pressure buildup) you don't want the door to suck shut or something like that it will kill the life of your centrifugal fan. Just make sure you have adequate intake for the air you are sucking out... I know an exchange of a couple times a minute normally will kill out any smell etc.. For smoking once a minute should be good... After that you are going to have smoke lingering around for a couple of minutes... It depends on the room setup but you can get a 12" 1000+ or so CFM then break it out into 6" or 4" ducts of equal length with a manifold then have multiple exhaust intakes so the smoke is sucked out the top in multiple places and doesn't matter if you are standing in one part of the room or the other. I personally like the Vortex Centrifugal fans I believe they have 12's that are 1100 CFM and 2000 or so CFM... It really all depends on the room setup etc and what your objectives are for example in my office I just have a 6" 450 CFM with a carbon filter and it works for me I just want the air recirculating to keep the smoke from coating my gear...

Just a note normally the higher CFM the more juice, louder, less warranty and more expensive 

Either way run the numbers on it cubic feet and the exchange of air price design limitations etc...


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## Steck

Resurrecting this thread... I've got a 14 x 10 x 8 three-season sunroom with several windows that I'd like to convert into a cigar room. I will likely install an electric, gas or pellet stove for heating this room in the winter. As far as heating the "make-up" air in the winter, does anyone know of an accessory that leverages a stove to heat up the air, rather than installing an inline electric heater?


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## Blue Raccoon

throughout our hospitals the TRs couldn't take the heat our new switches were putting out. so, we added these and they worked out great. I had a pre-fab shed (office/shop/smoking room delived and installed one of these and it works great

https://www.acwholesalers.com/LG-Air-Conditioners/LSN120HXV-12000-BTU-17-SEER-Ductless-Heat-Pump-Air-Conditioner/43934.ac


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## Gdaddy

Steck said:


> Resurrecting this thread... I've got a 14 x 10 x 8 three-season sunroom with several windows that I'd like to convert into a cigar room. I will likely install an electric, gas or pellet stove for heating this room in the winter. As far as heating the "make-up" air in the winter, does anyone know of an accessory that leverages a stove to heat up the air, rather than installing an inline electric heater?


Instead of heating the air, which will get sucked out by the exhaust fan, you might look into radiant heating. This works by heating the objects and occupants of the room instead of the air. It's used successfully even in out door situations.

Works like a light switch. The room could be totally cold and within minutes of flipping a switch the room is nice and warm. When you leave just hit the switch and it's instantly off. Heat when you want it.

I would beware of running any wood or pellet stove because the exhaust fan creates a negative pressure in the room. It would prevent the draft from working properly and would suck the fumes and smoke of the stove into the room including carbon monoxide. Not good. If the stove had an external air intake that would be the only way to safely use it.


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